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A famous poem that lists the qualities of a man who can face the challenges of life with courage, integrity, and resilience. Read the full text, learn about the context, and explore the themes and symbols of this classic verse.
- Rudyard Kipling
Rudyard Kipling is one of the best-known of the late...
- Poetry Foundation
Poems, readings, poetry news and the entire 110-year archive...
- Rudyard Kipling
Read the full text of the famous poem If by Rudyard Kipling, which offers advice on how to face life's challenges with courage, integrity, and resilience. Learn about the poem's context, themes, and literary devices.
Read the full text of Rudyard Kipling's famous poem If, which offers advice on how to face life's challenges with courage, integrity and resilience. Owl Eyes also provides annotations and analysis of the poem's themes, symbols and language.
- Summary
- Themes
- Structure and Form
- Analysis of If—
- Literary Devices
- Historical Context
- About Rudyard Kipling
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‘If—’is an inspirational poem that provides advice on how one should live one’s life. The poem takes the reader through various ways in which the reader can rise above adversity that will almost certainly be thrown one’s way at some point. Throughout the poem, the speakergives the reader multiple scenarios, both positive and negative, along with a ...
In ‘If—,’ Kipling engages with themes of masculinity and success/defeat. The first of these is incredibly central to the poem. From the speaker’s point of view, there are very specific things the young listener has to do to become a man. The speaker celebrates attributes that are traditionally masculine, like strength, while also, in a contemporary...
Rudyard Kipling(Bio | Poems) separates his poem into four stanzas of equal length, all of which contain eight lines. Each stanza has a set rhyme scheme of ababcdcd, with the exception of the first stanza, which has the following rhymescheme: aaaabcbc. In terms of meter, the poem is written in iambic pentameter, with five feet consisting of an unstr...
First Stanza
The first stanza wastes no time in setting up the if-then scenario. Kipling writes, In this first “if” scenario, Kipling reminds the reader of the importance of maintaining a level head even when those around the reader do not have one and are blaming the situation on the reader. It should be noted here that the reader soon realizes the poem is really one long sentence. The poem ends on a particularly high note, which Kipling emphasizes with his use of an exclamation point. The third and four...
Second Stanza
The “if” clauses continue into the second stanza, but they are structured differently. In the first stanza, the “if” clauses were grouped in lines of two, with the exception of the final four lines. In the second stanza, the form of the first two “if” clauses is similar to the second half of the first stanza, where the lines build upon the previous lines. Kipling writes, Here, Kipling urges his reader to dream and think but not to get so caught up in dreams and thoughts that the reader loses...
Third Stanza
The third stanza starts with the “if” clause, continuing on into the first four lines. Kipling writes: The theme in these lines is very similar to the one in the last two lines of the previous stanza: if you lose everything, you must be willing to begin again. Not only that, but you must also be willing to forget about the loss and not dwell on it. The next four lines of the third stanza are also tied together. The speaker states, These lines are particularly powerful. The speaker is implorin...
Kipling makes use of several literary devices in ‘If—.’ These include but are not limited to repetition, anaphora, enjambment, and caesura. The latter is a formaldevice that occurs when the poet inserts a pause into the middle of a line. This might be done with punctuation or with the meter. For example, lines one and two of the second stanza read:...
‘If—’ was written in 1895 and first published in 1910 in “Brother Square Toes,” a chapter of Rewards and Fairies. Today, the poem’s philosophical outlook is considered to be one of the best examples of Victorian stoicism. It provides traditional advice about how to live a good life with the understanding that one has to make the most of every minut...
Rudyard Kipling(Bio | Poems) was born in Bombay, India, in December of 1865. As a boy, he took pleasure in the work of Ralph Waldo Emerson(Bio | Poems) and Wilkie Collins. He was around eleven years old when he first started writing.Kipling’s best-known work, The Jungle Book, was published in the late 1890s. Kipling’s life took a tragic turn in the...
Learn about the inspirational poem that provides advice on how to live a virtuous and successful life. Explore the themes of masculinity, humility, and resilience, and the poetic form and structure of the poem.
- Male
- Poetry Analyst
"If—" is a poem by English poet Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936), written circa 1895 as a tribute to Leander Starr Jameson. It is a literary example of Victorian-era stoicism. The poem, first published in Rewards and Fairies (1910) following the story "Brother Square-Toes", is written in the form of paternal advice to the poet's son, John.
- 1910 (113 years ago)
- Doubleday, Page & Company
A poem of advice from a father to a son on how to be a man, drawing from Stoic philosophy and the British "stiff upper lip" ideal. Learn about the poem's themes, poetic devices, form, meter, rhyme scheme, and context.
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If— – The Kipling Society. IF you can keep your head when all about you. Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too; If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or being lied about, don't deal in lies, Or being hated, don't give way to hating, And yet ...
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